


Fantastic

by ladygray99



Series: Monterey [2]
Category: Numb3rs
Genre: Community: sniper_voodoo, Episode Related, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-08
Updated: 2011-02-08
Packaged: 2017-10-15 12:08:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/160682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladygray99/pseuds/ladygray99
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A conversation in and around a tree in the LA hills.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fantastic

**Author's Note:**

> Post Toxin. Written for the sniper_voodoo June rewatch challenge. The first eight lines of dialog are taken directly from the second act of the wonderful if very politically incorrect show The Fantasticks. Music by Harvey Schmidt, book and lyrics by Tom Jones (no not that Tom Jones the other one). If you've never seen a production go find one. Skip the film version. Oh and feedback would be really nice on this one.

  
Ian took note of a clump of leaves brushed aside and the heel of a shoe in the soft earth. Two feet away was another impression, a little deeper. The man he was tracking was moving at a steady pace but not in a rush, and was carrying extra weight on his right side. Ian doubted it was a weapon. From what he knew his quarry was not known to carry conventional weapons. That didn’t mean he wasn’t dangerous.

Ian kept moving his eyes to the earth tracking broken twigs, disturbed pebbles, crushed grass and yet there was a side step around a tiny mossy flower clinging to a half rotted log.

Ian stretched his legs, quickening his pace. He didn’t think he was more than 20 minutes behind his prey and narrowing the gap.

Finally Ian came to the edge of a meadow. The grass was mostly yellow with the season and Ian could clearly see where human steps had pressed it down and it had not sprung back. At the far edge of the meadow was a large oak. It was anomalous amongst the pine trees and prickly evergreen live oaks that surrounded it. Twice as tall with thick branches and dark leaves beginning to turn it seemed to have come from the other side of the Atlantic.

Ian skirted the meadow, his training forbidding him from wandering into the open. On the other side he picked up the tracks. They lead to the oak tree and stopped. Ian looked up.

“What are you doing up in that tree?”

Charlie looked down between his legs. “Growing ripe.”

“Don’t grow too ripe or you’ll fall.”

“Very wise.” Charlie looked back up and out over the hills Ian had just hiked.

“What do you see from up there?”

“Everything.”

“Really?”

“Nearly.” Charlie looked back down. “Would you care to join me?”

Ian examined the tree. Charlie was at least fifteen feet up and while the branch he was sitting on looked sturdy enough to him Ian wasn’t about to risk it. “I’m not sure if that branch could handle us both.” Charlie bounced on the branch a little rustling the drying leaves. “I never pegged you for a tree climber.”

“Why not?” Charlie replied.

“I don’t know.” Ian answered honestly. He never guessed Charlie to have any outdoor skills but that was obviously wrong. They’d been chasing each other around the LA hills for the last two days. Ian had been forced down to the city for reasons pertaining to paperwork after McHugh was rounded up. Charlie invited him on a walk which quickly became a chase. “Are you planning on coming down anytime soon?” Ian called up.

“Impatient?”

“No. Just getting a crink in my neck.”

“Catch.” Charlie said and a moment later his day pack fell from the tree into Ian’s arms.

“I hope you’re not planning on jumping?”

Charlie just smiled before lowering himself onto the branch beneath him. From there he wrapped his arms around the tree and shimmied down to earth. “I saw you on the far side of the clearing.”

“Good thing you’re not a sniper then, I’d be dead.”

Charlie leaned back against the oak tree running his hand along the smooth grey bark. “I don’t think I could kill. I don’t think I’m wired that way.”

“That’s not a bad thing. If no one could kill we’d have peace and harmony.”

“If no one could kill the world would have reached peak population millennia ago. We would have starved or fell ill or found some other way to die.”

Ian was surprised at the statement. It was accurate of course but seemed such a fatalistic thing to come from the energetic young professor. “So war and murder are good things? Better to let them die and decrease the surplus population Mr. Scrooge?”

Charlie looked to his feet and kicked a couple of leaves. “Sorry. Governments, agencies, and NGOs ask me to do projections all the time. Population, food, water, oil, birth, death, disease. It gets to me some days.”

“And what do you do on those days?”

“Take long walks, climb trees.”

“So you dragged me out here so you could cheer up?”

Charlie looked up smiling a little. “I dragged you out here because it’s a perfect, fantastic day. It’s not too hot, the breeze is just a little cool, the humidity is low and so is the smog and on a day like this it’s good to get away from people. Except for a select few.”

Ian took a step closer to Charlie and then another. He reached out a lay his hand against the tree just to the right of Charlie’s face. “And on this fantastic day I qualify as a select few?”

“Yes, Ian Edgerton. I do believe you do.”

**Author's Note:**

> I really wasn't sure where this story would go when I started. All I knew was that I wanted to put Charlie up a tree. Long ago I worked a production of The Fantasticks and I have a good memory for dialog so as soon as I got Charlie up the tree those lines came to mind and nothing else seemed to work. If you're not familiar with the show or haven't seen it in a while Charlie's lines are spoken by the dashing bandit and Ian's lines are from the love struck girl.


End file.
